Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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E-641
METHOD FOR PREVENTING STALE ADDRESSES IN AN IBIP
OPEN METERING SYSTEM
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for generating an
IBIP indicium and, more particularly, to such method that for preventing the
use of stale or invalid addresses when generating an IBIP indicium.
Background of the Invention
The Information-Based Indicia Program (IBIP) is a distributed trusted
system proposed by the United States Postal Service CUSPS) to retrofit and
to augment existing postage meters using new technology known as
information-based indicia. The program relies on digital signature techniques
to produce for each envelope an indicium whose origin cannot be repudiated.
IBIP is expected to support new methods of applying postage in addition to,
and eventually instead of, the current approach, which typically relies on a
postage meter to mechanically print indicia on mailpieces. IBIP requires
printing a large, high density, two-dimensional (2-D) bar code on a mailpiece.
The 2-D barcode encodes information and is signed with a digital signature.
The USPS has published draft specifications for IBIP. The
INFORMATION BASED INDICIA PROGRAM (IBIP) INDICIUM
2o SPECIFICATION, dated June 13, 1996, ("IBIP Indicium Specification")
defines the proposed requirements for a new indicium that will be applied to
mail being processed using IBIP. The INFORMATION BASED INDICIA
PROGRAM POSTAL SECURITY DEVICE SPECIFICATION, dated June 13,
1996, ("IBIP PSD Specification") defines the proposed requirements for a
Postal Security Device (PSD) that will provide security services to support
the
creation of a new "information based" postage postmark or indicium that will
be applied to mail being processed using IBIP. The INFORMATION BASED
INDICIA PROGRAM HOST SYSTEM SPECIFICATION, dated October 9,
1996, defines the proposed requirements for a host system element of IBIP
("IBIP Host Specification"). The specifications are collectively referred to
herein as the "IBIP Specifications". IBIP includes interfacing user
(customer),
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postal and vendor infrastructures which are the system elements of the
program.
The user infrastructure, which resides at the user's site, comprises a
postage security device (PSD) coupled to a host system. The PSD is a
secure processor-based accounting device that dispenses and accounts for
postal value stored therein. The host system (Host) may be a personal
computer (PC) or a meter-based host processor. As used herein, IBIP open
system meter is also referred to as a PC meter.
It is expected that once IBIP is launched, the volume of meters will
increase significantly when the PC-based meters are introduced. Such
volume increase is expected in the small ofFice and home office (SOHO)
market. The IBIP Specifications address and resolve issues which minimize if
not eliminate USPS risks regarding security and fraud.
As part of the Host functional requirements for configuration
management, section 3.2 of the IBIP Host Specification requires updating the
current CD-ROM hosted USPS ZIP+4 National Directory, which typically has
a fixed period in which its validity expires. The IBIP Host Specification also
requires that the Host vendor inform the users of action necessary to obtain a
current version of the current CD-ROM hosted USPS ZIP+4 National
Directory and that users have a reliable method to obtain new directories
before their current directory expires. The specification further requires
that
the Host produce standardized addresses, which must include a standard
POSTNET delivery point barcode, for use on the mailpieces. Such
standardized addresses are used in the generation of indicia evidencing
postage in accordance with the IBIP Specifications. The Host must verify
each address at the time of mailpiece creation regardless of whether the
address had been previously verified.
Thus, IBIP requires that, any time an indicium is to be printed, the
address used in the indicium be cleansed, i.e., validated, through an
3o addressing engine that includes the CD-ROM hosted USPS ZIP+4 National
Directory. This requirement prevents the printing of an IBIP indicium using a
stale or invalid address.
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Summary of the Invention
The present invention provides a method for validating address
information which reduces the overhead and burden to a user of an IBIP
system by ensuring that a correct DPBC is stored with a record for an address
to be printed, and that the record has not been changed or otherwise
compromised in any manner. The present invention prevents the use of stale
or invalid addresses to print indicium without the need to perform address
cleansing every time postage is to be printed. Address cleansing is
performed only when it is determined that the address for the indicium is
stale
to or invalid. Using the present invention, PC meter users do not have to
interrupt their use of other CD ROM's to insert the CD-ROM hosted USPS
ZIP+4 National Directory each time they want to print postage.
The present invention is describe herein as it pertains to the proposed
IBIP requirements by the USPS. It will be understood that the present
invention is suitable for preventing stale or invalid addresses from being
used
in the generation of an indicium for any postal coding scheme allowed by the
USPS. For example, if the USPS permits postal coding by modem or over
the Internet as an alternate means, I.e. other than the CD-ROM hosted USPS
ZIP+4 National Directory, the present invention avoids the need for a user to
2o access such dial-up or Internet service every time an indicium is being
generated.
In accordance with the present invention, when a user wants to print an
address with an IBIP product, an algorithm in the IBIP metering application is
run against every requested address to be printed to determine if it has been
properly cleansed and valid, I.e., not stale. If the algorithm determines that
the address is valid, postage can be printed without concern as to whether or
not the address is stale. If the application determines that the addresses in
the current selection are acceptable for printing, postage can be deducted
from the PSD and the address printed on the envelope. Should there be
3o addresses that fail such checks, the user can be presented with options to
clean their address now, or clean them later. If the user selects clean now,
the address is cleansed and the envelope can be printed with indicium
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generated from the cleansed address. If the user selects later, the envelope
can still be printed but without an indicium.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a
method to verify the validity of an address to be used in the generation of an
indicium by an IBIP open metering system, the method comprising the steps
of:
entering an address into the metering system;
verifying that an address record corresponding to the address exists in
an address record database for the metering system;
determining from information stored in the address record that the
address record is valid; and
generating indicium using at least some of said information from the
address record and printing said indicium;
wherein the address record includes a postal code, time the address
record was last cleansed, latest version of the addressing database used to
cleanse the address record, and one of a checksum, digital signature, CRC
and hash of critical parameters of the address record.
Desc action of the Drawings
The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention
will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description,
taken
in conjunction with accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters
refer to like parts throughout, and in which:
Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a PC meter in which the present invention
runs;
Fig. 2 is a flow chart of the process for printing an envelope in
accordance with the present invention;
Fig. 3 is a flow chart of the step of postal coding and address in the
process of Fig. 2;
Figure 4 is a flow chart of the step of validating an address record in
the process of Fig. 2; and
Fig. 5 is a block diagram of an address record;
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Detailed Description of the Present Invention
In describing the present invention, reference is made to the drawings,
wherein there is seen in Fig. 1 a PC meter, generally designated 10,
configured in accordance with the IBIP Specifications.
PC Meter 10 includes a conventional personal computer, including
monitor, keyboard, printer, CD-ROM drive, modem, conventional operating
system and application software. PC meter 10 also includes a PSD, which is
the postal security hardware device that attaches to a user's PC in
accordance with the IBIP Specifications. Finally, PC meter 10 includes a
metering application software and a CD-ROM hosted USPS ZIP+4 National
Directory. The basic function of the PC Meter is to print postage on
envelopes or labels at the .same time the address is printed using a standard
PC and an off-the-shelf PC printer. In addition to printing postage on
envelopes, the PC Meter software includes features that interactively examine
and correct mailing addresses, design the printing to be done on the surface
of an envelope or label, and manage address lists for small mailing
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applications, such as, invoicing or follow-up letters. The PC Meter software
provides additional convenience by allowing the user to print postage directly
from existing PC software packages, such as, word processors, contact
management software, or accounting packages.
As used herein, the term "postal coded", also referred to herein as
address verification, means the generation of a delivery point bar code
(DPBC). In accordance with the IBIP Specifications, each time an envelope
is printed with a postal indicia, the address used in generating the indicia
must be postal coded. IBIP requires this stringent and redundant task to
1o prevent a user from manipulating addressing data outside of a PC metering
application or even inside the application so that a DPBC may be present in
the hard drive of the PC from prior envelopes, but not valid. The present
invention provides a process that determines whether a previously postal
coded address is still valid which eliminates the need to postal code every
time an indicium is generated. The present invention makes such
determination based on data that was stored with the address when the
address was postal coded or when the address was changed or updated.
The following description will be for a single address; however, those
skilled in the art will understand that the following steps may be performed
for
2o a batch of addresses.
Referring now to Fig. 2, the method of printing envelopes in
accordance with the present invention is shown. At step 100, a user initiates
a print envelope routine. At step 104, the system checks whether an address
record exists for the mailing address of the envelope. If a record does not
exist, then at step 108, the system enters the address into an address record
in the record database. At step 112, the system postal codes the address
(described in detail for Fig. 3 below) and stores the postal code in the
address
record. Once it is determined that an address record exists for the address,
either at step 104 or from step 112, then, at step 114, the system processes
3o the user print request. At step 116, a determination is made that the
address
record is valid, i.e., is not stale and has not been tampered with since it
was
last postal coded. The validation or verification process is described below
for Fig. 4. If valid, at step 124, the indicium is generated and then printed.
If
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not valid, then at step 120, an error is flagged and the system returns to
step
112 to postal code the address.
Referring now to Fig. 3, the process of postal coding an address and
storing it in the database is shown. At step 204, a postal coding engine is
initialized and verifies a CD-ROM hosted USPS ZIP+4 National Directory is
present and valid for the current system date. The CD-ROM is needed to
assign addresses with valid DPBC's. At step 208, a PC meter (or other)
application program sends address data to the postal coding engine and
requests DPBC assignment. At step 212, a check is made to determine if the
1o address is valid using the CD-ROM hosted USPS ZIP+4 National Directory. If
the address is not valid, then at step 216, an error is reported indicating,
for
example, not finding address in the CD-ROM hosted USPS ZIP+4 National
Directory, and the user is prompted to correct the address. When this
address has been corrected, the address is now cleansed and the process
returns to step 208. If the address was valid at step 212, then, at step 220,
valid address data is stored in a corresponding address record in the record
database including the DPBC assignment and other fields that are used to
determine address freshness during print process, such as version of ZIP+4
National Directory and time of cleansing. At step 224, a checksum or digital
2o signature of the critical parameters of the address record, i.e.,
parameters
effecting the validity of the address record, is generated and stored it in a
field
of the address record. In the preferred embodiment, of the present invention,
such critical parameters include at least the postal data, i.e., mailing
address,
date the record was last modified, version of cleansing CD-ROM and the time
of last cleansing of the address. It will be understood that any other fields
up
to and including the entire address record can be treated as critical
parameters. By generating a checksum or signature of only critical
parameters in the address record allows users to modify other fields without
having to recleanse the address record.
3o In addition to a checksum or arithmetic redundancy check (ARC) on
the critical parameters of the address record or digitally signing such
critical
parameters, other methods for validating the address records include a cyclic
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redundancy check (CRC) on such critical parameters and hashing of such
critical parameters of the address.
If the user changes any of the address record critical parameters
through the PC meter application, the PC meter application updates the last
modified date of the record and checksum, which are also one of the critical
parameters. The next request to print the address will flag an error and
prompt the user to cleanse the address. In accordance with the present
invention, the system will not print the address or generate an indicium for
the
address if the address has not been cleansed or validated. If changes to any
1o critical parameter are made from other than the PC meter application, such
as through a database, then the checksum or digital signature will not
validate
when a request print is made.
Referring now to Fig. 4, the validation, i.e., verification, of the address
record is shown, which corresponds to Step 116 in Fig. 2. At step 504, the
process determines whether a DPBC exists in an address record, which
indicates that the address was postal coded using a ZIP+4 National Directory.
If one does not exist, then, at step 508, an error is flagged and the user is
prompted to postal code the address. If a DPBC does exist, then, at step
512, the process validates that Last Cleansed Date of the address record is
2o later than the Last Record Modification Date. In this manner, if any
critical
parameters have been changed since the last time the record was cleansed
an error will be flagged. At step 516, the process checks if the checksum or
digital signature is valid for the address record. If not valid, then, at step
508,
an error is flagged and the user is prompted to postal code the address. If
valid, then at step 520, the process determines if the cleansed date and time
are within a time frame of fresh data for the CD-ROM in use. If not within the
time frame, then, at step 508, an error is flagged and the user is prompted to
postal code the address. This time frame typically is base on fixed rules but
may be obtained from the CD-ROM itself. If within the time frame, but a
3o configuration database indicates that a newer CD-ROM should have been
received by the user as described below, the address is considered stale.
In addition to including the identification of the latest version of the CD-
ROM, the configuration database can optionally include software versions of
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all host system components, supporting files and any other IBIP required
deadlines. This database is updated every time a new CD ROM is seen or
the vendor infrastructure indicates to the PC meter that a new one should
have been received by the customer.
In operation, when the user requests the PC meter to print addresses
with postage, the application supplying addresses indicium generation will
scan the selected addresses to ensure that they are not stale. In addition to
addressing data fields, the address records contain the following additional
information: last address cleansing date, last record modification date,
record
1o checksum or digital signature and CD-ROM version used to cleanse the
address. The application will also need to contain a database of the current
version of the CD-ROM. This database is a requirement for the host in an
IBIP open system.
The following is a detail of the algorithm used to verify address
freshness. It is noted that the steps of the algorithm can be performed in any
order.
1. Validate that a delivery point barcode has already been
assigned, or fail the record.
2. Validate checksum or record signature to verify that the record
2o was not modified by the user in an offline mode. If not verified
fail the record.
3. The last modification date is no later than the last cleansing date
of the address record, or fail the record.
4. The configuration database indicates no newer CD ROM is
available when compared against the CD-ROM version field of
the address record, if newer see step 4.
5. If the configuration database indicates a newer CD-ROM is
available and is present in the CD-ROM drive, cleanse the
address to verify that it is still a valid address, if newer CD-ROM
3o is not available fail the record. If address is still valid, update
address record with new CD-ROM version, last cleansed date
and checksum.
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While the present invention has been disclosed and described with
reference to a single embodiment thereof, it will be apparent, as noted above,
that variations and modifications may be made therein. It is, thus, intended
in
the following claims to cover each variation and modification that falls
within
the true spirit and scope of the present invention.
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